Tag: swimming

Pat Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic, shares personal stories from his time as a parent with youth sports as well as what he teaches regarding developing leaders through sports.

Pat’s new book, CHARACTER CARVED IN STONE is about his discovery of the leadership virtues taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Duke University’s Coach K (a West Point grad) wrote the foreword.

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Coaches, ever found yourself in this situation? Practice gets cancelled. Or rescheduled. Maybe it’s raining. The venue changes. Whatever it is, everyone on your team needs to be told.

What most youth coaches do next is send out individual text messages and emails to players and parents. Sound familiar?

It’s fiddly. Takes time. You’re anxious about leaving someone out. Not everyone responds. How are you supposed to know if they’ve seen your message and received vital information?

The result? Players straggled at the wrong location, late, or missing practice altogether. Or kids uncollected because mom and dad didn’t get the new message. It’s you who loses out, the long-suffering youth coach with a screwed-up practice and only sad little Taylor for company!

It’s a problem. And it hinges on that essential element of youth coaching: successful communication with your team.

How to Communicate Better with Your Youth Team

Now, imagine this instead. Practice gets cancelled. Your team needs to be told.

This time, you blast the same message to all players and parents at the exact same time. Team contacts are listed for you. Just hit send.

Best of all, you can see exactly who reads your message and who doesn’t. You know who needs reminding!

The solution is a fantastic app called Heja. Coaches love this app because it was made specifically for the challenges of running a youth team. It works brilliantly and – here’s the kicker – it’s absolutely FREE!

Heja allows you to:

communicate with your players, their parents and your coaching staff

see who has received your messages

organize your team in a clear Team Schedule

share images, videos and more useful features

Even if the only thing you got by downloading Heja was knowing exactly who has seen your messages, it would be worth the 2 minutes it takes to get set up on the app. But that’s far from the case.

Why Youth Teams Need a Live Team Schedule

Ever been cornered by parents asking what the practice schedule looks like over the next few weeks? You do your best to share dates and times by email, text or in person. But it’s unorganized.

Here’s why Heja’s Team Schedule is beloved by the 50,000+ coaches currently using the free app.

How does it work? Update practice, game and workout times on your Team Schedule in Heja. Coaches, managers, players and parents access the schedule in the app. Everyone knows where to be. Kids show up on time. And if something changes, everyone gets notified.

BONUS: Players even check “going” or “not going” to each practice, game and workout so you know precisely who’s attending.

Does Your Team Really Need a Communication App?

Open, honest and instant communication is crucial to running any great team. Nowadays, digital communication plays a huge part in that.

However, nearly 60% of youth coaches admit to still relying on SMS and emails to communicate with their team, according to Heja’s survey.

When superior options exist, choosing not to utilize them has consequences. Over the course of a season, parents miss messages and interrupt practice.

The folks at Heja told me that’s one reason their app remains free. They believe great team communication shouldn’t be a luxury only afforded to some youth coaches.

Of course, other great services exist too. But no communication app is so well suited to the needs of youth coaches while remaining 100% free for the whole team (with no ads), which is why I’m happy to recommend Heja.

Get Your Team Started on Heja Now

Ready to try the app? It’s easy.

Download Heja on your phone. Create your team. Invite coaches, managers, players and parents to join with a team code and you’re good to go.

The whole process takes 2 minutes to set up and Heja’s customer support staff are brilliant when you need them.

Don’t settle for outdated communication this season. Invest 2 minuts now and unite your team on Heja. Trust us, your team will thank you for it later!

Disclosure: I was paid a small fee to endorse this app, but having seen all of its features and ways it can make a coach’s life easier, I fully support this article and encourage coaches to check out Heja and see how it can help their team.

Dr. Jay Martin is the Ohio Wesleyan University Soccer coach and one of the nation’s winningest soccer coaches ever. He has written one of the books in the series for United Soccer Coaches titled, The Best of Soccer Journal: The Art of Coaching. It is seen as one of the best soccer books in their book store. Jay is an author of several books approved by the United Soccer Coaches national office and advises them on their Coaches education curriculum.

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Chris Mance is a family coach who helps sports families pursue difficult goals while maximizing their happiness on their journey. Chris has a unique story from playing at football at West Point to becoming an entrepreneur, husband, and eventually a father of two young wrestlers. Through his experiences in leadership, Chris has been able to work with families to plan and execute their strategic plans.

Listen Now:

Coaching Your Own Kids

Chris was really hard on his first son from an early age. He has gone 180, with him now and with his younger son, he stays focused on being proud of them and just giving them a hug afterwards and de-emphasizing the winning/losing.

Cringe moment

At youth dual meets, early on in Chris’ coaching, he was too focused on the scoreboard with the newer athletes instead of just working on technique and focusing on improvement.

Teaching skills & Keeping it fun

Reward kids for working hard with a fun game – sumo wrestling is fun.

King of the hill – start with smallest kid, whoever takes down other wins, and keep going working way up

Culture

Parents are a big part of it – keep them tied in and on board

Doing something like fantasy sports with the kids is a really fun way to build some comraderie within the players of the team

Travel sports

The biggest problem is the season never ends. In a perfect world, kids would only play a sport during its primary season, and then be able to enjoy other sports in the offseasons.

The one that got away

Chris’ final wrestling match – he got beat someone who probably wasn’t as good as him – but he had taken it for granted and not trained well that week.

Best stolen idea

Sports is a chess match. You always need to be 2 steps ahead, especially mentally.

Favorite books/quote:

Quote: ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard’

Book: Wooden (by John Wooden)

Parting Advice

Have a system, plan and prepare

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Building confidence as a young basketball player

When I was a kid I used to play pick-up basketball every day of the summer with a few older players on a local court. One of the biggest lessons they would teach me was that basketball was a game of confidence. I would later come to understand that this is true for many other sports, not just basketball, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

First we need to distinguish between two types of confidence, healthy and unhealthy confidence. Healthy confidence is grounded in reality and it is honed through practice; it lets you recover after making a bad play and it lets you make a great play under pressure. This is the kind of confidence you want to build. Unhealthy confidence is not grounded in reality, it’s simply you overestimating your abilities for whatever reason. While unhealthy confidence may be beneficial in the short run, in the long run, it will end up hurting you and your team.

Many young players are holding back their own development because they’re preventing themselves from taking that next step forward and expanding their game. They might have a move they’ve been practicing on their own but they’re too afraid to try it in a 5 on 5 practice, or they might even be doing it in practice but they’re afraid to do it in a game. The cause of this fear is usually the same, they’re afraid of making a mistake. What if you miss, or what if you lose the ball?

If this sounds like you then you’re most likely, whether you see it or not, striving for perfection, which is ironically an excellent way to sabotage yourself. Perfection brings the burden of unrealistic expectations. A perfect player would never miss a shot, yet even Steph Curry missed around 56% of his threes this season. Missed shots and mistakes are a part of the game and the best way to get over your fear of mistakes is to go ahead and make a few, you’ll see that it’s not the end of the world.

Get Comfortable With Making Mistakes

Being a naturally shy and quiet person, my lack of confidence in games was a major obstacle during my early years. Playing with close friends and having nothing to prove, I would be in the zone and play completely free from any feelings of fear. Yet during tryouts or in the games with an audience, I was suddenly afraid to make bigger plays and always played things safe. With that attitude, I wasn’t ever going to impress anybody.

This lack of confidence didn’t just haunt me in basketball. Back then I was playing water polo alongside basketball. I was keyed up before my first official match and had some friends coming to watch me play. I was a goalkeeper, and in goal you only have a handful of opportunities to show what you’ve got. My mind was racing – ‘don’t screw up!’, I repeated to myself.

As you can probably guess, I did. Frustrated by my lack of contribution to the game and eager to make something happen, I launched a long ball directly to an unsuspecting teammate hoping to make a quick counterattacking play. That was out of character for me, a player who would otherwise stick to passing to the nearest players. A few seconds later the ball was in the back of my own net – my attempt at trying something bold had backfired. I felt horrible and I thought my coach would never let me hear the end of it.

To my surprise my coach seemed impressed, “I certainly haven’t you seen you try that before!”. I suddenly realized it wasn’t the end of the world. In fact, it was one of the best learning experiences I could ask for as a young player. After that, I was mentally tougher and more confident in sports and even throughout other aspects of life.

Building Confidence Is A Journey

The sport is different but the principles are the same. I’m not telling you to start taking wild shots from 30 feet in your next game just for the sake of shedding that fear of screwing up. Building confidence is a journey. Are you trying to expand your game in some way e.g. add a new move? Good, you should be. The first step towards successfully doing this is to master it on your own terms.

Go out to a local court and practice whatever it is you want to add to your game on your own until it becomes second nature. Bring a friend with you if you need to, they can help you out or they might notice things you don’t, have them record you if it will help. Every time you fail, make sure you understand why it happened (video will help with this) and try to fix it on your next attempt. Once you’re able to do it on your own consistently you’re ready to try it out in basketball practice.

You already know you can do the move, but during practice things are a bit different. There are now teammates and opposing players to consider. Mistakes still can and will happen. Let them happen and learn from them, that’s what development is all about. Talk to your coach, see if they have any advice for you. Ask them for drills you can do on your own. Doing it in practice builds the healthy confidence you want, and when you start consistently doing it in practice then you’re ready for prime time.

You have the move down in your muscle memory, you know you can do it even when pressured by the defense, you are no longer holding yourself back. All that’s left now is for you to go out and show them what you got. You’ll begin to realize that even the best players can’t make the right play or perfectly execute a move every time. But these great players all share something in common – they’re not scared of making a fool of themselves.

Max Kesler runs a website focused on providing helpful tips and advice for youth basketball. He shares on training, gear, and fitness. You can take a look here: https://www.hoopsbeast.com

Gad Espinosa is a Certified High-Performance Mental Game Coach, and speaker who has been interviewed in numerous newspapers and radio shows.

He has been privileged to train and mentor athletes at all levels, from those just starting their athletic careers to others who have gone on to represent their country and succeed at World Championships and Olympic games.

As a former professional athlete, who has represented his country internationally, he knows first hand the psychological and emotional challenges a young athlete faces.

As a parent of two former competitive athletes he knows the difficulty of raising athletes and as a varsity head coach, he sympathizes with coaches and their responsibilities.

Gad is passionate about helping young athletes discover mental strength breakthroughs that allow them to maximize their development so they can take their game to another level and fulfill their athletic potential.

Culture and captains

‘How do I Improve my Kid’s Athletic Potential?’

The one that got away

Gad had specifically reminded the team about a specific thing to look for in the game, and 1 minute into the game this situation happened, and a player didn’t do what they just had talked about. Gad regrets that he immediately took the player out of the game and didn’t play him much more that game.

Best stolen idea

Preparedness

Favorite books/quote:

Quote: ‘If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.’ – John Wooden

Parting Advice

Take a step back and remember how you wish you were coached when you were younger

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Susan Stout educates coaches specifically about working with kids who have ADHD, learning differences and/or anxiety.

As a former swim coach and now a mom to an avid young athlete with ADHD and dyslexia, Susan wishes she had known when she was coaching what she knows now about how to recognize the differently wired kids, manage the challenges and bring out the best in these athletes.

Own Beat Athlete

Blogs, profiles of successful players and coaches with ADHD, letters from players

Tools for coaches and facts to know about kids with invisible differences

Cringe moment

When Susan was first coaching, they lost a meet because the backstroke flags were the wrong distance. Susan was worried about over-coaching girls who had previously been her teammates. She learned she needed to be the coach first and not worry about trying to impress them or be their buddy.

Keeping training fun

Relay races are always a great way to compete and have fun while conditioning

Achieving peak performance under pressure

They start meets with cheering and getting energy up. Then she would have the athletes come and check in with her before their events to chat one-on-one. The coaching is finished at this point – instead reinforce them and tell them – ‘you’ve done it, the work is done, now go have fun and show what you can do’

The one that got away

As a swimmer, for 3 years Susan was trying to break 36 seconds. 3 times she got 36.00. She still had a great time, just wishes she could have got a 35.99. 🙂

Best stolen idea

Building a culture of being a family.

Favorite books/quote:

Quote: ‘A common mistake amongst those working in sports is to spend a disproportionate amount of time on X’s and O’s as compared to time spent learning about people.’ – Coach K

Quote: ‘When I was a young coach, I used to say treat everybody alike. Instead- treat everybody fairly.’ – Bear Bryant

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Sean Conlon is the founder of We Make Footballers, a football(soccer in the U.S.) prep school to prepare athletes for playing at academies. With a background with the Chelsea club, Sean has the passion and vision to help young athletes improve their game on and off the field to reach their dreams.

We Make Footballers

Great fun skill building games

Stuck in the mud – Get in a square, everyone has their own ball, dribbling. Make one player the sticker – he runs and tries to tag the other players. When tagged, they hold their ball over their head, and if other players kick their own ball between a frozen players’ head, that player is freed.

Snake – In a square. 2 players have to hold hands, they are the snakes. The rest are the mice. Players don’t have a ball, they just run around. As players are caught, they join the snake.

The one that got away

In the cup final, Sean looks back on a couple of changes he could have made earlier. Thinking clearly in high energy moments is critical. Be decisive and take action.

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Freddy Hilliard is the head coach at Malvern Prep in Pennsylvania. In 8 seasons as coach, he has surpassed the 260 win mark, collected 5 PA state titles as well as 5 national top 25 rankings and has sent 75 players on to play college ball. His former players view him as a coach, mentor, teacher and role model. Although he develops baseball skills, he is even more talented in developing better people first and foremost. Baseball as we know is a small part of life, how we conduct ourselves as humans, as husbands, as brothers, as fathers…that is what is important in life and that is how we will be remembered.

Listen Now:

Cringe Moment

After a loss, on the bus ride on the way home, the kids were laughing and having a good time. Freddy couldn’t understand why they were having fun and weren’t mad. It was a good eye-opener, that most of these kids enjoy being on the team, but they have a lot going on beyond this team. The biggest lesson he learned was investing more in them as people and getting to know what makes them tick.

Choosing to be excellent at everything means work, but don’t be satisfied with being OK or mediocre.

Teaching skills

It all starts with the why. Teaching is much more effective if they understand what they are trying to accomplish and why it’s important.

Players should be free to ask questions and suggest improvements

Competing is key to getting kids to focus and give their all. They have 4 yellow jerseys – they give them to the best 4 defensive players at their 4 stations. They also have a batting championship belt they award (similar to a WWE or boxing belt) each practice.

Achieving Peak Performance

Work with your team on breathing to calm their heart rate down

Visualize success. Think about success and don’t be afraid to fail.

Core Values

They have 3 of them: Selflessness, Excellence, Energy

Connecting with and impacting kids

Freddy had a player who didn’t get much playing time, but had a great attitude, and stayed in touch for years to come. This speaks to Freddy and his staff valuing him as a person, not based on his talent level.

The one that haunts me

Freddy’s team was in the state championship game, they had beaten the other team twice that season rather easily. They lost in extra innings. Freddy thinks he could have done a better job getting his team focused and not being complacent.

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Year over year, some teams are able to rise above the pack and succeed. While this is generally a collection of many, many things, we share the 9 most important characteristics that make up a successful soccer team.

Physical Characteristics

1. Sound Fundamentals

Teams that have sound soccer fundamentals will perform at a higher level each and every minute of game time. Good skill sets surrounding trapping, dribbling, passing, shooting, and heading allow soccer players to perform higher with every touch of the ball.

This translates to higher possession, more ball control, and better shooting. These characteristics sharply increase the chances of your team winning.

2. Fully Fit and In Shape

Soccer is truly a game of endurance, and a fully fit team stands a much better chance of performing well. Keeping a team in shape and fully fit requires constant training that is specifically focused on fitness, with running and agility exercises daily or weekly.

3. Always Improving

Good soccer teams are always improving their fitness and fundamentals, even throughout the season. So often, teams focus on fundamentals and improvement in training sessions before the season starts, but slack off as the season gets going.

Good teams are always working hard to improve, even if the changes are incremental and small. You can see this play out as the successful teams pull away in the end.

Tactical Characteristics

4. Proper Positioning

For a lot of teams that don’t end up succeeding, they can be considered to be a collection of good individual players, but not a team. While there are a lot of factors that go into playing as a team, one of the most important is proper positioning.

A good soccer team utilizes all 11 players on the field in the best manner possible, with each player understanding their position on the field. Proper positioning allows the coach to fully implement their strategy, and each player to maximize their abilities.

5. Good Communication

Soccer is a fast paced game with a lot of movement, and players will constantly be defending and counter-attacking. This frequent movement across and around the pitch means that communication is paramount.

Good communication allows teams to capitalize on mismatches in the game, while simultaneously not exposing themselves to danger.

6. Cover for Each Other

Covering for each other is really a combination of the first two points, but brings the tactical essentials together. Through proper positioning and good communication, soccer teams can outpace, outplay, and beat other teams. All of this culminates in the simple concept of covering for each other, whether on offense or defense.

Mental Characteristics

7. Steadfast Belief

Soccer games can swing on a single goal, and it is easy to get down on yourself (and the team) when something doesn’t go your way. Belief in the strategies and tactics that have been set up, along with the belief in fellow teammates, is essential.

So often, the most successful of teams remain steadfast in their belief that they can win the game. These teams are able to “dig deep” to find what is necessary to win games.

8. Mental Fortitude

Mental fortitude in soccer plays itself out in the ability to execute the game plan and soccer tactics, even when it is very difficult. Whether the team needs to absorb a lot of opposing pressure, or rebound from missing several wide open shots, a team needs to have the mental fortitude to push forward.

Many have correctly identified this as having a short term memory. The best forwards forget their misses, continuously shooting. The best defenders forget their penalties, continuing to make timely tackles.

9. Constant Focus

Successful teams rarely have mental lapses, and this can be accounted to their constant focus. While a soccer game is more than 90 minutes long, it only takes a few seconds for the game the swing. Often, this is the result of a lapse in concentration and focus.

Staying focused for 90+ minutes is difficult, and the successful teams are able to do this down each and every player.

Bring these 9 characteristics to your soccer team, and continuously working on them to see improvement and success!

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Tim Frechette runs a website focused on providing helpful tips and advice when it comes to different athletics, such as soccer and volleyball. He shares different drills to run, a breakdown of different positions, shoe and clothing suggestions, etc. You can take a look here: https://athleticlift.com/

Dr. Rob Bell is a mental toughness coach. He is a husband and father of two wonderful kids. An Ironman and endurance athlete, and loves to PLAY: golf, swimming, skiing, running, ping-pong and chess. He speaks & trains with teams, organizations, and coaches on mental toughness.

Listen Now:

Hinge moments

A person, a decision, or a moment that changes the direction of your life

1 of Dr. Bell’s hinge moments was when he was in college and living a party life- he walked off an 80 foot cliff. But it woke him up and changed him: “Our worst moments in life often end up becoming our best moments”

Mental toughness training

Mental toughness – ‘It’s caught more than it’s taught’

The most important time is when adversity hits – How, as coaches, do we respond? When they fail – teach them that ‘this is an event, not a person.’ “It’s a bruise not a tattoo.”

Visualization

‘To visualize success you have to have had success’ – So you have to lots of competitions – then the debrief is key: What were you thinking about when taking that key shot? Were you thinking about letting down the team, or what was going through your mind?

And don’t just compete physically – they can compete on who gives the most high-fives or something mentally so different kids win and lose

Making the kids hungry

How can I find the motivations for everybody? Motivating is the hardest mental skill. It’s hard. You have to train your coaches and captains to help. Then it’s a unified effort to pick everyone up and keep them on board.

Timing for feedback

Parents – during the game is not the time to give feedback. You want them listening to the coach. The 2nd worst time to talk to your kids is on the car ride home. The best time is in non-pressure environments.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Jack Nicklaus: ‘People don’t understand how many times you have to finish 2nd before you finish 1st’

Favorite books/quote:

Quote: ‘Some battles aren’t worth fighting even if you win. Some battles are worth fighting even if you lose.’ – Gil Reyes, Andre Aggassi’s coach

Books by coaches who have won and lost – Dean Smith, Pat Summit, Bear Bryant, Bill Walsh

Parting Advice

Better people make better athletes. Focus on developing the person.

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With over 30 years of experience as an educator, coach and administrator, Greg Winkler is currently in his first year as head coach of the boys soccer team at Ida Baker High School in Cape Coral, Fla., and physical education teacher at the Charlotte Campus of Florida SouthWestern State College in Punta Gorda, Fla.

A decorated soccer coach in the state of Wisconsin, Winkler was named to the Wisconsin Soccer Association Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015, recognizing a coaching career that saw him amass over 400 wins at both the youth and high school levels and earn State Youth Coach of the Year honors in 2006 and Wisconsin Large School Coach of the Year in 2004.

In 2009, Winkler published “Coaching a Season of Significance,” a coaching resource that draws upon his vast experiences to map out a plan for fellow coaches to find success and overcome obstacles at every step along the way to a significant season. He has presented at coaching and athletic director conferences on topics ranging from building relationships through athletics to engaging in effective communication with parents and administrators.

Travis Daugherty has been a coach for over 20 years and worked with thousands of athletes of all backgrounds, ages, and ability levels – plus the parents that came with them. Throughout that time, he also served as a speaker and development leader for Higher Level Sports, a father-son basketball camp my dad founded and directed throughout the Midwest.

He recently authored a book- The LENS. Travis’ explanation of the book:

“Studying, writing, and developing this game plan have given me a chance to clarify for myself the sports parent I want to be. I hope it will help you clarify who you want to be, too. And even though nobody’s perfect in this area, I do hope each of us can see clearly that there’s no greater opportunity to prepare our kids for success than the one we have through sports. I want each of us to recognize that opportunity, and use it to build strong, committed, confident leaders in this world.”

Listen Now:

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails? Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!

Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 161 – Travis Daugherty

Coaching your own kids

The positive desire to see your own kids succeed can lead to negative reactions

Myopic – being short-sighted. The key is to focus on the big picture and not short-term wins

Developing a plan and clarifying your priorities to the kids and parents is a critical first step

Remember that challenge and adversity is a key component of a child’s development, learning to overcome those challenges is critical to healthy development

I’m going to keep this post short and sweet because I want you to spend 7 minutes watching this video instead of reading a post.

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I met Patrick Murphy, the coach of Alabama softball, at a recent conference. He told a story about calling timeout in a key situation, walking up to the girl he was coaching, putting his arm around her, and saying ‘I am going to love you no matter what the result of this at-bat is.’

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The core value you will see plastered all over their facility is:

PERSON

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ATHLETE

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​​​​​​​Person over athlete. That is the type of people Coach Murphy is developing, and it is contagious.

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​​​​​​​Watch the video and see how this attitude has permeated into Brittany.

Sean Afkhaminia is the CEO and technical director at Footy Factory. The mission of Footy Factory: To cultivate players’​ athletic performance by promoting physical, technical, and personal growth. Not only will we aim to sharpen their natural abilities, but we will also teach them the values of integrity, conviction, and self-belief. We aspire to form an institution that consistently takes in raw, unpolished talent and systematically develops and generates elite, well-rounded players.

Listen Now:

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails? Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!

Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 160 – Sean Afkhaminia

Long term development vs Immediate Results

Technical – It’s all about getting comfortable with the ball

Tactical – Small-sided games

Physical – As they get older and their bodies develop this becomes more important

How do you enjoy technical training?

Have them problem solve in competitive situations

Start with small-sided games. Futsol in soccer. Very fast-paced, very small areas, tons of quality touches on the ball.

Use standard P.E. drills and modify them to your sport. Example: ball tag – one player has a ball in his hand and the rest are dribbling balls at their feet, the player tries to tag the other players’ ball

Mental toughness

Training needs to be hard and they need to learn to overcome adversity

Encourage a culture where failure is part of the process to help remove fear of failure

Connecting with and impacting kids

Sean has a passion for kids who don’t have the economic means to afford high-priced training. So he helps kids get the training even if they cannot pay for it.

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Adam Walker is the coach of a U14 boys fastball(baseball) team in Ontario Canada. His note to WYC:

‘I have been coaching for years in hockey and fastball, I have had good results but not great. I also had decent relationships with my athletes but again not great. Last winter I found your podcast and after listening to a lot of episodes especially those around creating a winning culture I made some changes to the way I coach. In the past I was never overly negative but I didn’t focus on being positive. I spent time talking to my athletes but I didn’t make it a point to really know them.

After making these changes last season not only did I see a huge change in the passion these young athletes have for the game, we were also closer as a team, I developed great relationships with my athletes, and in the end we won our provincial championship and then went on to win a National Championship.

These young athletes had such a passion for the game and it resulted in them working harder every time we were at the diamonds. In the end their skills and self confidence grew and the result was a National Championship and memories these kids will never forget.’

Listen Now:

New Sponsor!

Want to save time running your sports team without paying a penny? Overwhelmed by constant texts, calls and emails? Check out the Heja app, which helps coaches all over the world more easily manage youth sports teams – 100% free of charge!

Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 159 – Adam Walker

Cringe Moments

Putting way too much emphasis on winning championships at the youth level. ‘It was more what I wanted not what the kids wanted.’

Long Term Athlete Development

How do you prepare athletes long-term to succeed? Failure is part of the process – have them fail early, but make sure it is in a safe environment.

Changing culture

Post-game talks – Coach doesn’t need to rehash all the things they did wrong. Have the players share with each other what they did well.

‘Your athletes can either show up to every game afraid to make a mistake or excited to play the game. Both options are up to the coaches.” Put pressure on the other team by making them make a perfect play, then live with the results.

You have to be both: Positive & Demanding.

They had a plan:

Year 1 – Develop _____ skills

Year 2 – Enhance _____ skills

Year 3 – Put these together and compete to win championships

Game goals

Process based. Not ‘go 3 for 3’, but rather ‘hit 2 balls hard’

Best Stolen/Borrowed Idea

3 team game – 1 in infield, 1 in outfield, 1 hitting. They do it every practice.

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The search for the perfect playbook for their team consumes many coaches’ focus and energy. The irony is, the great coaches I have observed consistently have playbooks than can be boiled down in 2 simple ways:

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1 – They have 2 or 3 base plays and a few variations off of these

​2 – They don’t change much throughout the season

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Do you know what the best playbook is for your team? It’s probably the one you have right now, but probably should have less plays. Keep it simple. One of the best football minds I know is Joe Daniel, he shared this with me:

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During every season most likely there will be a game, or a stretch of games, where it feels like your playbook is not working. Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts to consider when evaluating how to fix it:

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– Do this: Spend time perfecting your base plays in practice the next week. Re-visit the fundamentals of what makes the base plays work and analyze any shortcomings. Lots of reps vs. air with attention to the ‘little things’ that make your system work

– Do this: Seek input from an expert. Show video of a couple plays to your local high school coach and ask for his advice.

–Don’t do this: Panic/over-react. Think your system is flawed, scrap the whole thing, and implement a whole new system.

– Don’t do this: Think you need more plays to ‘trick’ the other team. Often if things aren’t working you have too many plays. And sometimes the other team is just really good.

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Keeping things simple and sticking with a consistent plan allows you to focus on what the great coaches focus on: teaching kids to be great at fundamentals and to play games freely without overthinking complicated systems.

Shannon Evans is the Founder of The Scholar Coach Academy. Shannon was an active lacrosse coach and is now incredibly passionate about spreading the word about the Truth of getting athletic scholarships, importance of teaching Leadership prior to college and HS and celebrating failure!

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Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 158 – Shannon Evans

Each One Teach One

The experienced players get to teach the less experienced. So the coach shows the experienced player what they want to teach, then the experienced player teaches that skill to the less experienced. Great way to teach your leaders how to lead.

Great small area game

Chumash – 3 on 3 – can score on either side of the goal. Similar to 3 on 3 basketball, you have to take it ‘back’ when possession switches.

Pop goes the weasel/Fox in the box

5 defenders in front of goal, 5 offensive players. Defenders have to stay in the box, offensive players cannot go in box. Then a defender ‘pops’ out of box and covers the ball, then when that players passes it the defender goes back into box and the next defender pops out. Teaches offense to not run into traffic and move the ball.

Nonverbal communication

Creating some really simple hand signals is much more effective than trying to yell across a field

College recruiting – Showcases

Elite camps – the key is the student needs to have a relationship with the coaches before the camp.

College recruiting – Know what D1 demands are

D1 – Train and practice year-round – Full time job year-round and you go to school

D2 – Full time job in-season, mostly a full-time job out of season

D3 – Full time job in-season, off-season the expectations are much lower

Best way for a high school coach to prepare an athlete for college

Freshmen/sophomore year – Look for camps where coaches from a school you want to go to will be. Make sure the school you are interested in has the major you want to study.

The athlete should email coaches (make sure you understand the specific NCAA guidelines for your sport). Never should come from the parent. Coaches don’t want to hear from parents.

Remember MOST college athletic scholarships are not for full rides. Many only cover 1/4 to 1/3 of cost.

Grades/test score/rigor of your schedule – are the most important things a high school athlete should focus on.

The one that got away

Being a female coach in a boys’ sport – Shannon got called horrible names. She taught her players the best way to beat a bully is to outscore and outplay them.

Favorite books/quote:

‘You can march to the beat of a different drum but you have to stay in the parade’

Parting Advice

For each practice – have a clear measurable obective. Tell the players what it is at the beginning of practice, then review it at the end and ask for input on how well you accomplished it.

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Tips For Smaller Hockey Players

Just 5-foot-6, Theo Fleury was an eighth-round draft pick who would go on to register 1,088 points in a 15-year career that wrapped up in 2003.

At 5-7, Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard — the younger and shorter brother of Maurice “Rocket” Richard — became the only player in NHL history to play on 11 Stanley Cup winners.

They called Marcel Dionne “Little Beaver” because he stood all of 5-8, but that didn’t stop the longtime Kings star from scoring 731 goals, fifth in NHL history.

Lest you think that sort of thing is ancient history, think again. For all the behemoths – 6-9 Zdeno Chara and 260-pound Dustin Byfuglien leap to mind — there is still plenty of room in the NHL for players who check in at less than the league average of 6-1, 201.

Players such as Brad Marchand (5-9, 181), Johnny Gaudreau (5-9, 157), Cam Atkinson (5-8, 179) and Alex DeBrincat (5-7, 165) have all found NHL success — and there are lessons any undersized player can take from those players and others to prove that size doesn’t always matter.

Roll With It

You’re short. Everybody knows it. Don’t go all Napoleonic about it. At least, that was Gaudreau’s take in a 2016 piece for the Players’ Tribune:

“You’re always going to have people on you about your size, so do what you can to be in on the joke,” Gaudreau said. “Last All-Star weekend, Ryan Johansen brought out a little kid during the penalty shootout and scored a goal with him. So as a gag, Jakub Voracek came up to me and asked if he could use me as a prop for his shot. I thought it was hilarious.”

A couple of other tips from Johnny Hockey:

• “Next piece of advice, keep your head up. Always. You’re not built to take heavy shots, so you have to be twice as careful out there.”
• “Try that move out, look silly, and get better. As long as you’re smaller, your best skill needs to be your effort.”

Go Big or Go Home

In everything you do on the ice, demonstrate size — of your heart, your effort, your willingness to learn. These keys will open doors typically closed to smaller players.

Maximize your gifts: You can’t make yourself taller, but you can work on getting faster, stronger and more explosive. That means time in the weight room as well as on the ice.

Emphasize those gifts: If you’re the fastest player on the ice, build your game around it. If you’re a great passer, focus on setting up your teammates. Get better at the things at which you’re already good.

Play with confidence: Believe in yourself, play to your strengths, know that your size can lend you an elusiveness that big players are not granted.

Accept contact: It’s going to happen anyway. Like Gaudreau said, keep your head up. Keep your feet moving and your center of gravity low — victories in NFL line play typically go to players with the best positioning and leverage, not the most strength.

See and sense the game: Decision-making skills can be honed, hockey IQ (or “ice sense”) can be developed. Pickup games help, tough practices help, small-area games where you stay on the ice longer and you’re more concerned about finding the open man than dragging your carcass up and down the ice helps. So does carefully watching the smartest players in the game.

If You Don’t Believe, No One Will

Mostly, the key to your success is just don’t quit.

Ultimately, it comes down to belief in your ability. One without the other isn’t enough. Or, as Gaudreau said, “It doesn’t matter where you’re playing or if you’re getting cut from teams. If you have the talent, the right person will find you.”

Author bio: AJ Lee is Marketing Coordinator for Pro Stock Hockey, an online resource for pro stock hockey equipment. He was born and raised in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, and has been a huge Blackhawks fan his entire life. AJ picked up his first hockey stick at age 3, and hasn’t put it down yet.

Pete Caliendo has lead clinics for Major League Baseball International, USA Baseball and many other baseball organizations in various Latin American and European countries, and throughout the United States.

Pete has lectured on baseball all over the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America, has written articles for various publications and an international coaches book. Has a set of 5 baseball instructional DVD’s developed specifically for the volunteer coach to help them organize, teach and have fun throughout their practice and games.

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Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 157 – Peter Caliendo

Cringe Moments

Trying to repeat a process over and over again – each individual is unique and sometimes you’re best to just work with what works for each individual. Keep an open mind when working with athletes.

Teaching skills

Don’t just practice ‘normal’ situations – practice reacting after a mistake is made (a groundball is dropped, then react to how recover)

Achieving Peak performance mentally

Kids need to fail, earlier better than later. Ask them ‘what did you learn?’

Let the kids make decisions, let them learn, don’t use them as robots.

Team Culture

Character – are you happy when your teammates do well? How do you treat your teammates, the coaches, ets.

Captains/Leaders

They are servants and need to model behaviors

Discipline

It’s all about communication – if a player isn’t hustling, ask them ‘are you tired?’ If they say no, tell them it looks like they’re tired because they’re not running hard. Maybe tell them you’re going to sit them out of the next few plays because they look tired, and they need to come tell you when they are ready to run hard again.

Practice hustle. It’s a habit, not inborn. For warm-ups in practice, have them run to their position on the field. Then blow a whistle and have them run back to you. (hidden conditioning)

Connecting with and impacting kids

It’s cool when players you coach start implementing things you taught them

The second principle that really hit home was the concept of Guided Discovery.

Quite simply, it is the concept of letting those you coach learn through their mistakes. Contrast that with the old-school approach of telling them in excruciating detail exactly how to do something.

Picture yourself teaching a new skill, I’ll use picking up a groundball in lacrosse as an example:

Old way:

You spend 10 minutes explaining the proper way to pick up a groundball, you demonstrate it, and you tell them all the reasons it’s important to do it ‘your way’ and the bad things that can happen if they don’t do all the things you’ve shown them. Then you let them try it and you walk around correcting mistakes.

Guided Discovery:

You start by playing ‘hungry-hungry-hippo’ with lacrosse balls by splitting the group into 2 teams, throwing a bunch of balls on the ground, and tell them it’s a race to see who can pick up the most balls and put them back on their side.

After a couple of rounds of this, you ask the group what seemed to work well when picking up the balls, and what seemed to not work so well. Maybe they say ‘it works better to use 2 hands instead of 1, and it works better when I bend lower and put both hands really close to the ground.’

You acknowledge their ideas and suggest trying another round or two using some of those concepts.

And you keep adding constraints as their skill level gets higher

Which method do you think will get more buy-in and understanding from the athletes?

When talking with the players on our teams, instead of continually offering solutions, instead ask them ‘And what else?’ or ‘Tell me more.’ Then listen and seek to deeply understand.

I often fall into the trap of thinking that if I explain something clearly, people will naturally understand. But that’s not how most people learn. People learn by doing. Failing. Figuring it out on their own. Discovering. Solving.

My job as a coach is to teach these young men and women. And if people learn by discovering solutions vs. being told them, that’s what I need to do. Talk less and listen more.

My direct sports coaching experience range from 2-10th grade for the past 10-yrs, but I also intersect with the varsity players while I’m working w JV (girls lacrosse). But my day job (consulting Engineer) is what led me to learning to coach adults on the job, and see how similar the process is between 8-18 yr olds and 22-62 yr olds…different nuances, but it all comes from the same place: connections, compassion and creating community. And it doesn’t have to be all rainbows and unicorns; but it certainly takes a lot more than “managing” and “instructing” with a firm attitude.

My big interest is seeing how critical youth/HS sports are in helping the next generation grow into the best people they can be. And I tell stories about my time as an athlete, mentors I’ve found after college, my family history (Dad created a company/vocation with a HS diploma and a work ethic futures through sports), and the young people I “serve” as their “Chief” Engineer.

And I now use these stories to help PARENTS see how to have less worry and find more joy in their kids’ sports/school.

Listen Now:

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Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 156 – Dave Briglio

Coaching your own kids

In an ideal world you can have non-parent coaches, but often there aren’t enough coaches so you have to step up to help the program

The key is to be open and honest and communicate with your own kid and the other kids about being a parent coach

Teaching skills

Guided Discovery – It is more effective to let the kids figure it out on their own vs you just telling the kids how to do it

Start with a basic drill, and as they develop expertise in that skill, you add a twist to the drill to add complexity

Letting the players own the game

The players can’t hear you – so barking orders during the game is very inneffective and frustrating

Send in instructions with the next group/line. Coach them vs. yelling at the players on the field.

Achieving Peak performance mentally

Praise the effort over achievement

Fear is a very short-term motivation. A feeling of security and that someone believes in you is best way to increase kids’ confidence.

Figure out what you want to celebrate – and do it a bunch, in practice and in games. Real-time (otherwise it feels like false praise if you do it later.)

Some of the best praise is when you are doing it ‘behind their back’ – when you are praising someone who is not there at the time.

Self Esteem vs Self Confidence

Confidence is what you visibly display. But esteem is what you truly believe about yourself.

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“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” – Jim Valvano

I recently had the opportunity to attend a level 1 certification class put on by U.S. Lacrosse. Besides the myriad of great drills I learned, there were two overarching principles that were sprinkled throughout the training that really hit home for me. I’ll share the first today, and next week I’ll share the second.

The first principle that really caused me pause was the question:

Are you a palms-down coach or a palms-up coach?

I wasn’t sure what they meant by this at first, but it’s really easy to picture when you think of game and practice scenarios:

When a player makes a mistake, or a referee makes a call you don’t agree with – what is your reaction? Think about your body language.

Do you hold your hands up in the air with palms-up and visibly show your frustration?

or

Do you hold your hands down with palms-down and say ‘It’s OK’?

Think about how different these approaches makes the person (athlete or referee) feel on the other end. A palms-up response is really saying ‘I can’t believe you could make that mistake. You are not a good athlete/referee. I don’t believe in you.’

Compare that to the palms-down response. This approach tells the person ‘You might have made a mistake, that’s OK we all make mistakes all the time. It doesn’t mean you are a bad athlete/referee. We can discuss how to do it better next time. I believe in you.’

It really comes down to your purpose in coaching. If you are trying to prove your worth via wins and losses, you will be a palms-up coach because you think someone else’s mistake is making you look bad. But if you are trying to lead a group of young men and/or women to be the best they can be, and help teach them how to be better and pour into them, you will be a palms-down coach because it is all about them not you.

Brad Butterworth is the Director of Education and programs for Shoot360.

Brad has been in basketball development for 18 years as a head high school and collegiate coach. As a high school coach, he was able to help guide Dana Hills to its best records in school history. He’s worked with Florida State University, Western Washington University, Air Force Academy and Colorado College. Coach Butterworth’s success at the high school level was due to the work he put into the youth of his program in order to create a more competitive community and repeat success. He took that philosophy and helped create scale-able basketball development programs using sports technology.

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Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Show Notes – WYC 155 – The War for Four – Brad Butterworth talks Intentionality in Everything You Do

Cringe Moments (Brad calls ‘Turnovers’)

Brad went into his early coaching experiences without understanding how he needs to sell his program to the players and parents and community. Selling their vision.

Communication

Always taken place, whether you say it or not

Find shared values with parents

Four Keys

1 – Spacing

2 – Timing

3 – Communication

4 – Dramatics (or engagement) – Am I sold out to this?

Mastery

4 stages:

1 – Don’t know what they don’t know

2 – Know what they don’t know

3 – Know what they know

4 – Doesn’t even know that he knows (unconsciously competent.) Only way to get here is practice.

The War for Four (rule of the doubles)

Out-offensive rebound your opponent by factor of 2

Shot attempts in the paint 2x amount of opponent

Deflections 2x amount of opponent

Free-throw attempts 2x amount of opponent

Shoot 360

Advanced basketball facility

Teach individuals, teams with advanced skill development

Get 350+ shots in 1/2 hour. Exact statistics are kept for every shot, allowing for instant corrections

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You know someone’s message is effective – when it doesn’t just make you think, but it causes you to ACT.

This week’s podcast with Riley Tincher, did just that for me.

Riley opened his heart about the power coaches had in his life. In saving his life to be specific.

During the podcast, I shared with him about 2 conversations I had recently with parents of kids struggling to find their identities in high school. I had talked with their moms about some suggestions. But I had not taken the time to talk with these boys individually.

Typically when I finish a podcast interview, I am a bit spent and take some downtime to get a snack and relax for a bit and think through what was just discussed.

But after my conversation with Riley, literally from the second I hit the button to end our Skype call, I felt encouraged to take immediate action on my calling to be a coach. To quit talking about being a coach who cared, and instead to take action showing my love for these boys.

So before I did anything else, I immediately texted both boys and set up one-on-one meetings with them. To pour love and wisdom and encouragement into them, and as Riley so passionately shares in his message, to let them know they are uniquely created with gifts that have nothing to do with their athletic prowess.

It’s so easy to get caught up with practice plans, X’s and O’s – I hope this note encourages you to set up a meeting, make a call, write a note – reach out to 1 or 2 kids on your team. Do it now. And keep being a a coach that pours hope into these young men and women – what a glorious calling!

Riley’s bio: I am a former All-American pitcher at UW-Whitewater. I am now a Mental Conditioning Coach (Master’s Degree in Sport Psychology), Author, and Speaker. I own a mentorship program called Coachability, where I have had the great fortune of coaching and mentoring athletes at every level. My book, “Pitching Against Myself,” is about my baseball career and all of the life lessons I learned throughout it, and how they apply to life after sports. It also shares an important message that I wish I would have been able to hear back when I was playing before the identity crisis, depression, and suicide; a message that says “you are more than an athlete.”

Pitching Against Myself book: Use discount code ‘WYC20’ at rileytincher.com to save 20% off book

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Click the link to download the app and get your team better organized for free now! app.goheja.com/pod

Lessons from being told “You Should Quit”

Riley’s first baseball coach at age 14, after the season told Riley ‘You Should Quit’. This created a huge chip on his shoulder to prove him wrong. But it created an unhealthy need in Riley to prove himself to others.

‘There is purpose in your pain’ – Riley’s struggle with depression and suicide was turned around when a mentor taught him that the purpose in his pain was to help others.

I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE – The drop caps that start each chapter of Riley’s book spell this phrase, without him planning this.

Performing in pressure situations

A big key is understanding we are not alone

Practicing pressure situations is also key

Confidence comes from:

Affirmation – Your words (as a coach) are critical. Remind athletes that they are great where they are. And they can get better. And most importantly, they are worthy enough to get better. A great activity is for athletes to write down affirmation statements about themselves, and then have them share them with their teammates – challenge them if they don’t see to believe them: ‘Speak up, say it like you mean it’

You’re the kind of person who _________ (is willing to take the big shot; will learn from any failures or mistakes you’ve had/made)

Achievement. Struggle is part of it. The greater the struggle, the greater the reward.

Culture

The worst: the coach said ‘I am your master and you have to listen to me’. They had ‘rules’ – but the best athletes didn’t have to keep them.

The best – Didn’t have rules, had standards. The players created them.

Best advice from a mentor

If you don’t change what you believe about yourself, nothing will change

Parting Advice

Stop focusing on the scoreboard and start focusing on your legacy

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Ahhh the age-old question for every youth coach out there, do I coach to win or for my players to “have fun”? Should I play everyone equally or should the better, or at least harder working players get more playing time? What age is too early to stop coddling and start coaching players more aggressively? Unfortunately there are no right answers, but here is my best stab:

Ages 10 and Under

At these ages, it is the parents, not the kids, which drive everyone else nuts. No your kid is not a lock to get a scholarship, yes he or she does need to sit on the bench for a few minutes each game. No your kid’s coach isn’t biased against your kid. The worst I have ever seen is baseball parents of young kids, just because your kid had a homerun last game does not mean he will have a 15 year career in the major leagues.

Coaching kids and dealing with their parents in this age group is all about tact. You will want to play each kid close to the same amount of minutes each game and make sure that each kid has the opportunity to start throughout the course of the season. Foster a positive experience and atmosphere so that your kids look forward to practices and games and are able to learn both hard and soft skills. You will want to teach your kids all of the basics, making use of lacrosse rebounders will allow them valuable reps to improve their coordination and anticipation.

Never lose your temper with kids this young or raise your voice, even if you “have an excuse to”. You will be fighting a losing battle and doing your kids a disservice.

Ages 11-13

You can turn up the intensity a bit with middle school aged players. There is nothing wrong with having depth charts and giving your stronger players more opportunities. We cannot shield our kids from reality forever. Anyone reading who has had middle school aged kids would agree, they can be MEAN! Keep the culture positive and do not allow for any bullying. Guys especially like to give each other a hard time so make sure that it never crosses the line, you want your players to look forward to practice and games.

Age 14+

High School Lacrosse is one of my fondest memories as a teenager. Almost all of my best friends in high school played lacrosse with me. Teenagers love to push back to authority so make sure they know who is in charge, but that doesn’t mean you cannot have a sense of humor and a whole lot of fun coaching your kids. It will shock you how much progress your kids make year to year when they work hard. Between how much they grow physically and mentally and how much time they put into becoming stronger players, they will shock you which is one of the true joys of coaching. Even though they won’t admit it at this age, the kids still look up to you and appreciate you.

There is no magic bullet with coaching kids, when in doubt, air on the side of being patient, understanding and keeping your composure. Outside of their parents, you are one of the kids biggest role models. Teaching the fundamentals of the game is crucial, but playing team sports like lacrosse as a child means so much more, the opportunity to meet lifelong friends, learn soft and hard skills and overcome obstacles is invaluable to children. If you haven’t considered it before, give youth coaching a try, it is essentially volunteering and youth counseling but I suspect you will get as much out of it as the kids to, especially if it means spending quality time with your kids.

This is a guest post by Evan Sutker,founder and owner of Lacrosse Scoop

3 Ways to Improve Your Basketball Game

Many basketball players assume that to improve your game you should just shoot a lot. Sure, putting the ball in the hoop is the primary goal of every basketball player.

However, there are other parts of your game that require practice as well. Here are three ways to improve your basketball game, things you can work on to be a better player and teammate.

Court Awareness

As players improve their skills, they usually move up in level. As the talent improves, so does the speed of the game.

One of the most important, yet often overlooked basketball skills is court awareness. But, how can you improve this important skill? How can improve your natural instinct to know where you are on the court at all times, without even looking?

Developing better court awareness is the same idea as becoming a smarter basketball player. It starts with knowing the court dimensions precisely.

Measure the width of the free throw lane for instance, and then measure how many strides it takes you to cross from one side to the other. But, what do you do in the areas of the court that don’t have markings?

An old coaching trick is to move players around the court while they’re blindfolded. Start at one point and work your way in a direction you think moves you closer to the basket.

You may find this hard to begin with, but watch how you improve. After a few steps, try to guess where you are on the court at any given time.

Check to see how close your guess is, then start over. It’s essential to work with a partner on the blindfolded drill, but after a while, you’ll begin to have a natural sense where you on the court without even looking.

There are also motion drills you can do that not only practice basic skills like passing, but also enhance your on court awareness. If you know where you are on the court at all times, it makes sense that you can quickly know where you need to be in an instant.

Foot Speed and Agility

As boring as it might sound, there are times when you need to practice things on a basketball court without a ball. Two of those skills are foot speed and agility.

If you can’t keep up with your opponent, or the pace of the game, you’re going to soon find you’re always one step behind. But, how do you improve your foot speed and agility.

Aren’t these skills something you’re just born with? One reason some players like to think they are, is because working on foot speed and agility is both boring and hard.

To get faster, you have to run. Players often see wind sprints as a mode of horrific punishment leveled by an ogre coach. This is not true.

When you sprint from the baseline to foul line, bending over to touch each line, you are improving both your court speed and agility. Sure, these types of sprints, often called suicide sprints, are hard.

Ball Handling Skills

Once you appreciate how important court awareness and agility are in the game of basketball, you can move to the skills that put points on the scoreboard. The team of players who can score the most goals, obviously, wins basketball games.

Getting the ball up the court and to open shooters involves ball handling skills. Everyone seems to love practicing their shooting, but to get an open look; you need to be able to handle the ball.

Every time you pick up a basketball and work it around your body, your ball handling skills will improve. Some ardent coaches even have their players carry a ball around with them everywhere possible.

Like the previous skills, there are on court drills you can do to make practicing ball handling skills more fun. You can work on your power dribble, or set up cones and do figure eights.

The objective is to make the ball feel like a part of your hands. When you are comfortable with the feel of the ball, you’ll have better control. Like everything else in basketball, to improve your ball handling skills, there is no substitute for practice.

Summary

We all want to improve our basketball skills. However, some players are reluctant to work on the little things. Try these three tips to improve your basketball game. Each one will help you toward the ultimate objective, scoring more points than your opponent.

Leonard Zaichkowsky, PhD, a professor, researcher and consultant for almost four decades at Boston University, pioneered sport psychology by bringing cognitive neuroscience and sport performance together as an interdisciplinary science. His academic textbooks and research publications demonstrated the importance of an athlete’s remarkable brain in anticipating and acting on opportunities during competition.

He has consulted with teams in the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, Australian Rules Football, the Spanish men’s national soccer team, and Olympic sport organizations around the world. Len is a former president and a fellow of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, and currently section editor on psychology for the International Journal of Health & Sport Science. Recently, the American Psychological Association honored Len with the “Distinguished Service to the Profession” award.

Today, Len is a co-founder and senior consultant at 80 Percent Mental Consulting, advising coaches, teams and sports organizations on developing athlete cognition. After too many Boston winters, he and his wife now live in Fort Myers, Florida.

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Heard a really cool story this week. One of my son’s best friends’ cousin is lacrosse player in another state. He is a rising senior, and while quite talented, wasn’t on a lot of D1 radars for lacrosse. Then, after a few fabulous outings at some national lacrosse tournaments, the interest level started quickly rising.

Not that unique of a story at this point, athlete does well and gets some opportunities.

But what happened next is where this story gets really interesting.

This young man got a call from the head coach of one of the top college powerhouse lacrosse programs, some would argue THE top program.

The coach requested the young man and his parents come that weekend for a visit and meeting. They did.

And this story is what still gives me goosebumps: The coach began the meeting with this:

“We saw you play last weekend and were impressed. So we came down to the field after your last game and looked for you. We found your teammates. They were hanging out, taking off their pads, having a good time. But we couldn’t find you. We looked and looked, but to no avail. Then finally we saw you. You were over in the team tent. Picking up trash, cups, and cleaning up.In that moment you went from an average recruiting target of ours, to THE top target. You see, lacrosse is a sport generally consumed with young men who are entitled, selfish, and uncoachable. But what we have found is that recruiting players who will pick up the trash helps us build a culture that wins championships.”

Gives you goosebumps, right?

And as a sidenote – can you guess what 2 books this coach recommended as summer reading for this young man?

Not surprising at all – Legacy by James Kerr, and The Hard Hat by Jon Gordon.

Scott Hearon is a native Nashvillian and a 2006 graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy where he played football and basketball for the Big Red. A remarkably average athlete, Scott did not make a big impact in the high school stat columns, but he found his niche as a gifted leader and communicator among his teammates and coaches. Scott continued on to Baylor University and earned a degree in Communications and a minor in Business. While at Baylor, he met new football coach, Art Briles, during football tryouts when Coach Briles informed him that his 5.0 second 40 yard dash time was not quite good enough to be a slot receiver for the Bears.

After returning from Texas, Scott took a ministry job working with high school students and their families and coaching in his spare time. He found a lot of success in his day job, but found his coaching to be a disaster. Reminded of the incredible potential athletics has to prepare players for life, Scott set out on a mission to be be a more full hearted leader himself and to develop opportunities to help other coaches do the same. This journey led Scott to co-found the Nashville Coaching Coalition in 2015 and begin as the Executive Director full-time in 2016 with the goal of fully leveraging the human growth potential of sport in Nashville.

Listen Now:

The good and bad of sports coaches

Many kids validate themselves based on what coaches say to them and how they treat them

The lost dream of being an all-state player

When Scott realized he wasn’t going to be an all-state player, he could feel the disappointment from his father. He and his father realized this wasn’t healthy, so they ended up reaching out to Joe Erhmann to learn what being a man is really all about.

The 8 Feelings

Dr. Chip Dodd has researched emotional intelligence – and come up with 8 core emotions that every human has. We have the ability to choose a positive or a negative response to each emotion. The 8 core emotions are:

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James is the Founder of Unleash the Athlete and former Head of Leadership and Character Development at IMG Academy. He helps college, professional athletes, and business professionals develop the mental and relational side of their craft through interactive lectures and teambuilding activities. James is also the director of performance for Complexity, the esports organization owned by the Dallas Cowboys.

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Donny Murray is currently a professional pitcher in the independent Frontier League. Donny is from Boston, was a 4 year starter at D1 Holy Cross, and also pitched 2 summers in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Falmouth Commodores. In 2016, Donny pitched the first no-hitter in USPBL (professional independent league) history. He also works with SuperSpeed Slugger, which is a bat speed training product being used by MLB teams and youth players of all ages. The WYC listeners can get 10% off SuperSpeed Slugger by using promo code “WYC”.

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I left the players with a final challenge, specifically talking to everyone who didn’t win an award or hear their name called.

I asked them: “If you didn’t win an award or hear your name called tonight – are you upset? Hurt? Angry?”

And then I challenged them with this:

“You should be upset. Angry. Did you know anger is one of 8 core emotions that make you human?

But do you know you have 2 choices with what to do with each of those core emotions? 1 is a positive choice that will improve your life, and 1 is a negative choice that will make your life worse.

Specifically with anger, here are your 2 choices:

1 – Negative choice: Self-pity and depression. You can sit around and feel sorry for yourself and fall into depression.

2 – Positive choice: Passion. You can choose to let your anger today to fuel a passion. A fire to have better results next time you are in this position.

I hope you choose the positive choice. Picture yourself sitting here next year. What’s it going to take to hear your name read? If you need help with understanding that, I’d love to give you feedback on how you can make that happen. Then go make it happen, live the next year with passion to be great and win.”

I hope you are living your life with passion. To be great. To win. It’s easy to fall into self-pity, so take action every day to stay focused on the bigger prize. Make winning your habit starting today!

A huge shout-out to Scott Rosberg from Great Resources for Coaches. I interviewed him back on WYC Podcast Episode 75, and he shared this awesome idea:

Don’t have a bunch of awards based on talent-level. (Offensive MVP, Defensive MVP, Most Goals, etc.)

Instead, base your awards on things 100% controllable by the players.

I know, doesn’t seem like rocket-science, but why did I never do this before?

We did it, and it was awesome. Here are the categories we came up with:

Positive Energy

Hardest Worker

Best Teammate

Field general (best communicator on the field)

Do the dirty work

Hardest working rookie

Leave the jersey in a better place

These were all voted on by the players.

Then we had 1 Coach’s Award, chosen by the coaches, utilizing the criteria above.

And we had 2 MVP awards, which were voted on by the players.

So we ended up with 10 awards for 33 players.

The one other thing we did was read all of the names who received votes for each category. That way kids(and their parents) could hear their name, even if they weren’t walking away with an award.

I left the players with a final challenge, specifically talking to everyone who didn’t win an award or hear their name called… Insert cliffhanger here… I’ll share the details of that in next week’s post.

Amanda and Vickie practice Special Education law in Southern California. They also run a non-profit called Inclusive Education Project where they aim to level the playing field in academic settings for students living with disabilities. They co-host their own weekly podcast by the same name – the Inclusive Education Project Podcast and they feature conversations on how parents and teachers can best ensure an inclusive school environment.

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2018 will mark John Adair’s fourth year at Coerver Coaching. Adair is the Regional Director for all of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, overseeing player development and coaching education. Prior to joining the Coerver Coaching staff, he has enjoyed success at both the club and high school levels in the South Jersey area.

Listen Now:

Cringe moment

Early on John did a lot of cone drills and isolated movements without decision-making and learning the game through their own mistakes

Creativity and problem-solving

Instead of cones, set up small area games in confined spaces. 2 v 1’s. 3 v 2’s.

Training better individuals vs just winning as a team

Instead of 11 v 11, break the game into corridors and small area games

Use this mentality to create mini-goals so each unit has accountability and measurements to look at after games, not just wins/losses as a team

Constraints based coaching

Create games where players have a variety of choices, they learn skills while making decisions

Self-confidence for players

Focus on the process – so it’s different for each player. Don’t compare them with other kids. Use guided discovery through side conversations with players for them to uncover solutions to what they need to improve.

Team Culture

Involve the kids to get buy-in. Have the kids write down what they thing a good player on this team will do.

Great teambuilder

Have play days. The kids run the day, play mini-tournaments. Kids make all the decisions.

5 for 5

Spend at least 5 minutes talking to 5 different kids about something other than sports

Connecting with and Impacting Kids

John coached a kid who had the physical tools but not the technical and mental tools needed. The kid approached John and worked his butt off over the summer and went on to play college soccer.

The one that got away

Coaching a state playoff game, they played the underdog role too much, changed their tactics too much, and went away from what got them there. This led to a lack of confidence.

Best learned/stolen idea

Constraints based coaching. Make everything in practice relate back to the game and involve decision-making. Don’t be reactive in practice-planning – set objectives and have a plan that you stick to.

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“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”​

– George Bernard Shaw

Coaching staffs all have disagreements. They should. You have smart people with different solutions to common problems.

But how often do we discuss these ‘elephants in the room’?

We are 3/4 of the way through our lacrosse season, and we had some unresolved elephants in the room.

So we had a a coaching meeting last week, and I asked these 5 questions to start the dialogue:

List 2 things going well with our team

List 2 things we could do better as a team

List 2 things I am doing well to support you as an assistant coach

List 2 things I could do better to support you as an assistant coach

List 2 elephants in the room – some dynamic that is going on with our team or coaching staff, that everyone knows about, but no one is talking about

A powerful, honest conversation ensued. No one’s feelings were hurt, and as the head coach I got great feedback and we implemented a few tweaks that will powerfully change the direction of the remainder of our season.

Build trust, be open and honest, and value everyone and your team’s dynamics will be infinitely improved.

Tywanna Smith, President & Founder of The Athlete’s NeXus, has several years of experience working with professional athletes in a financial and business capacity. Smith earned her Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Marketing and her Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). She was also a four-year starter for the SEC program’s women’s basketball team, eventually taking her talents to Europe for a 2-year professional career.

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Ben Kissam is a youth sports coach and writer in Denver, CO. Ben’s areas of expertise are in relationship-based coaching and teaching, effective communication, and fusing lessons in sport and entrepreneurship.

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Carter Armendarez is a senior at Wesleyan University, where he’s also captain of the wrestling team. Getting recruited to play sports in college is confusing to lots of athletes, but it really shouldn’t be. Carter has seen too many athletes fail to get recruited. So he made Acute Recruit’s College Recruitment Guide for Athletes so that doesn’t happen anymore.

A big opportunity

A lot of D3 schools have trouble recruiting quality athletes because their academic standards are too high. This is a great opportunity for athletes who may not have been the highest level elite athlete in high school.

Contacting Coaches

Meet them in person at tournaments

Research schools you want to pursue and look up the coaches online

The one that got away

Carter lost by one point his senior year on the match to qualify for state

What he learned: He learned to play to his strengths

Best Stolen Idea

Quote from Tim Ferris when he asked an professional skier what the most important turns are on the run: ‘The most important turns are the 3 years I spent preparing before the run.’

Parting Advice

Focus on the basics

Keep it fun!

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Michael Richards is the Owner and Operator of Elite Athletic Performance in Benton, Arkansas. After missing out on an opportunity to play collegiate baseball due to what he describes as “Youthful ignorance and a slightly bad attitude”, Michael began playing semi-pro baseball and attending his sophomore year of college. Shortly thereafter he began training fitness clients and young athletes as a sole proprietor. What started as a fun way to “Not get a real job” and make extra money in college, has turned into 16 years and approximately 30,000 hours of “in the trenches” training experience.

Today he strives every day to help kids be the best athlete and person they can be. A particular love for Velocity and Accuracy training for baseball and softball pitchers has led to a number of 90+ MPH clients, professional and collegiate coaching contacts, and a burning desire to learn new information whenever possible.

Listen Now:

Grades and attitude as a high schooler

Michael had the athletic ability to play baseball beyond high school, but his attitude and his grades prevented him from that opportunity

Myths around youth sports

1 – Pitchers running day after pitching to flush the lactic acid buildup. J-bands (Jaeger bands) or massaging the muscles makes way more sense.

2 – Everyone needs to be hyper-flexible. Some people just aren’t very flexible, and while some stretching can add a bit of flexibility, there are other things such as massage rollers and dynamic stretches that are much more beneficial.

Multi-sport athletes

If kids love multiple sports, they should play them. But the belief that you must be a multi-sport athlete to be recruited to college is not always true. Especially in your junior and senior years – Don’t play a 2nd sport just to do it if you don’t love it.

Travel ball and showcases

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the most efficient use of time is travel teams and showcases. Private lessons are often a much more time and cost efficient. And the lessons don’t need to be year-round.

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Kathy Feinstein is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Sport Performance Consultant (CMPC). Since 1998 her unique practice has empowered adolescents, adults, couples, families and teams to achieve greater satisfaction in sport, health and life. Kathy’s practice focuses on the 3 key areas: counseling, sport performance psychology and education through seminars and workshops. Kathy works with youth, high school, collegiate, adult amateur and professional athletes in such sports as golf, tennis, hockey, volleyball, basketball, figure skating, cheerleading, track and field, swimming and cycling. In addition to sport and exercise psychology consulting, she also offers team and coach consulting.

Listen Now:

Being a crazy sports parent

Kathy got really excited about her daughter riding horses, but she lost sight of doing what’s best for her daughter

Performance Anxiety

The first step is to normalize the need – kids need to know that performance anxiety is very normal

The importance of breathing

Anxiety is all about the future. What if…

Breathing is all about the present.

If you can do this 20 minutes per day, it changes your mindset

When you inhale, there will be a cool sensation at the tip of your nostrils. When you exhale, there is a warm sensation at the tip of your nostrils.

When you do this, you will start having some thoughts. Without any judgement, bring your focus back to the breath. Do this over and over again.

Do this for 5 minutes with your team, your coaches, your players, etc.

Recovery routines

Having a discharge routine – if you are upset about something, have a quick discharge routine to flush away the past. Then have a different re-focus routine that gets you back in the moment and focused on the future.

Growth Mindset

Encourage kids to take risks, risk making mistakes. Mistakes are an opportunity to get better.

Confidence inventory

Have kids make a list of all of their accomplishments. Then have them read it before a performance.

Post-competition routine

After routines, write down what you did well, then add 1 or 2 things you want to do better next time

Visualization

You have to train how to visualize: Have the athlete do a simple activity (touch your toes and and jump in the air.) Then have them close their eyes and visualize doing that same activity.

The more vivid the visualization is, the more effective it is. Try to involve as many senses as possible

For youth sports coaches and league directors, the hardest part of tryouts may not be the evaluation sessions themselves – instead, it can often be communicating the results to the athletes and their parents.

Having kids involved in youth athletics can bring many positives to their lives. It keeps children active, builds teamwork and social skills, teaches determination and perseverance, and allows kids to see the benefits of hard work.

These are positives coaches and directors want to be involved with and want to watch young athletes partake in.

Unfortunately, youth sports can also teach other lessons, like how to cope with the disappointment of not making a team, and dealing with the reality that they weren’t skilled enough to be on the squad they wanted to join. These are hard life lessons that can come at young age for youth athletes.

For these reasons, it’s important for coaches and league directors to communicate tryout results properly to kids and their parents and should be included on any tryout prep checklist.

What to do

It’s important for youth sports coaches and directors to start communication early with parents and players so there are no surprises at the end of tryouts. Entering evaluation sessions, parents and players should be informed as to the number of teams that will be formed, how many athletes will make the squads, and what the options will be for the players who are cut.

To accomplish this, leagues should send out communications to parents far in advance of tryouts (even as early as 1-3 months before the evaluation sessions). This email or letter can include information about registration, the tryouts format, and any potential cuts.

On the day of evaluations, coaches or the league director should address the parents in person to ensure everyone knows the format and expectations for the day. Information as to how many players will make the team can be shared at this time.

After the tryout sessions the directors will need to determine how and when to communicate results to all athletes. Those who did not make the team will need to be notified and given options as to what other teams or leagues they can join, or how they can improve for next year. For those who made the squad, they will need key information like schedules and equipment requirements, and any pre-season meetings they will be expected to attend.

How to do it

While it can be pre-planned for when coaches and directors should address parents and athletes about tryouts, it can be much more difficult to determine how to relay the results. While each league may choose to convey the evaluation outcomes differently, here are some suggestions to consider:

Keep it private: For some leagues, the most convenient way to reveal tryouts results is by posting a roster to their league website. This is a quick and easy option, so it can be appealing. However, leagues need to make sure to protect players’ privacy when using this method. Posting players’ tryouts numbers instead of their names is one way to avoid sharing who made which team.

“I feel the best way to communicate results is an individual email to parents,” Andrew Lenhardt, the Director of Coaching at SASA, said.

Lenhardt feels that sending individual emails to parents allows the league to send a personal note to the player and discuss their individual scores and placement.

Another way to communicate results is to have a one-on-one conversation with each player, or make a phone call to each competitor. According to Dr. Justin Anderson, a sports psychologist at Premier Sport Psychology, this is the best way to share the news with youth players.

According to Anderson, this allows coaches and directors to be honest with the athletes and give individual feedback.

“Be authentic. Share reasons why (they didn’t make the team). Allow it to be a growth opportunity. Give them things to work on,” Anderson said.

Be available: No matter how the results are communicated to players, it’s important for the coaches and directors to be available to answer questions from athletes and their parents after the teams are announced.

Players will likely have questions as to why they were placed on a specific team, or why they didn’t make a squad, and want to hear directly from those who determined the rosters.

Who to tell

While the method of revealing tryouts results is difficult to determine, leagues also need to decide who they will communicate the results to – the parents or the athletes, or both.

This can depend largely on the age of the players. For young athletes, the news will likely come better from a parent, initially. Then coaches and directors should be available to answer any questions from the player later.

For middle school and high school athletes, results should be conveyed to the players themselves. They are old enough to be able to hear what they need to work on and what it will take to make the team the following year.

There is no perfect way to tell a young athlete he or she did not make a team. However, by keeping the child’s feelings and development in mind, and planning out how to communicate the outcomes, tryouts results can be better received.

Author: Chris Knutson

Bio: Chris Knutson is co-founder of TeamGenius, a leading player evaluation software that helps youth sports organizations by streamlining tryouts and player evaluations.

Steve and his wife Kerry started their first camp in 2008, and only 4 summers later, the camp was declared “Best Summer Camp” in Hartford Magazine’s Readers Poll and their programs have received tremendous positive coverage from area media outlets. Now over 1000 kids have come to recognize that “Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport” and kids from throughout the U.S. and beyond are attending their programs.

Jenn Casey is the Program Director for CrossFit Kids and Swing Fit (a Kettlebell Sport class) at CrossFit Kennesaw in Marietta, Georgia. She is the President and Co-Founder of Georgia Kettlebell Sport, which has the mission to develop and promote Kettlebell Sport in the state of Georgia and the greater Southeast Region of the US. She is developing a youth-focused Kettlebell Sport program and is taking her youth team on their first road trip in December 2017. Jenn is an active Kettlebell Sport athlete and in 2017 was chosen to participate in the IUKL World Championship in Seoul, South Korea as part of Team USA where she placed 4th in 16kg One Arm Long Cycle.

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Ian Goldberg is the Founder and CEO of iSport360, Inc. a SportsTech venture that helps youth sport coaches and parents share objective player feedback. As a sport parent and coach, Ian has witnessed the chaos on the sidelines and in the bleachers when coaches’ and parents’ expectations are not aligned….and the kids suffer. His company has developed a solution to the pain in the form of an app and an informative (and frequently humorous) newsletter “The Chaotic World of Youth Sports”.

Listen Now:

The feedback loop

Regular feedback is important, but can be time-consuming. Ideally coaches should be able to spend a few minutes and quickly evaluate and provide feedback to all players

Objective goals

It’s easy to just look at how many points/goals players score, but most coaches are trying to evaluate many things beyond just scoring. The key is to define measurable objectives of what you are trying to improve in players.

Empowering kids

Ideally kids should be able to:

Talk to the coaches themselves

Set their own goals

What happens in a parents’ brain when watching their kids play sports

Fight or flight mode – Parents’ stress levels and cortisol levels are skyrocketing when being on the sideline watching their kids

Parents are either part of your process or part of your problem

Involve them – they want to know what’s going on, regardless of age

A good way to base how much parents are involved – how much money they are spending. So for cheap low-level rec sports, not as much. For high-level travel teams costing thousands of dollars – the parents should be communicated with more.

iSport360 – The feedback loop

Mobile app – Coaches can work with players to set goals at beginning of season and allows the coach to provide feedback

Parents can also send other players on the team positive emojis

Weekly newsletter with funny stories

Best Stolen Idea

Barbara Corcoran from the Shark Tank: ‘To be successful, you have to have a certain level of stupidity, so that when you keep getting knocked down, you continuously get back up, expecting better results.’

Parting Advice

Don’t let sports take over your life. Enjoy it and keep it in perspective.

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Coach Kav owns a sports performance facility called The Sport and Speed Institute. On top of that he runs NFL Combine Programs and All-American Football Camps every year, and just published a #1 bestselling book on Amazon.

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How kids learn

Remember what you want them to work on is what they are most insecure about, so be strategic about how you approach it

Trust

The key is building trust, the kids will know when you don’t truly have their best interest in mind

Practice design

Teach and deconstruct a skill

Compete. There needs to be a winner and a loser. Positive conditioning- the winners get to do additional workouts. But at the youth level, this takes the right situation

Make sure you’re not just teaching a skill and doing a drill for 10 minutes – you have to keep reinforcing what you teach continuously throughout that practice and throughout the season

Try not to use the term ‘suicides’ for running. Powerful word that should not be used in this context.

Auditory reactionary drill

Two lines in a relay race – have multiple cones – you stand behind them and call which cone they have to go around (#1,2,or 3). This also helps you balance the teams so you don’t have to worry about evening up the teams.

Also can reward the team that has better team spirit

Good practice games

Tic tac toe – 2 teams – throw cones/pinnies in a square

Tag – great competition/conditioning game with lots of cutting. You can add a cognitive element – give everyone a number – then use math to call out the numbers of who is ‘it’

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John Moyer is a current teacher at Stow-Munroe Falls High School, where he has taught since 1990. John is certified coach in Resilient Leadership, based in the Washington DC area. John currently is employed by the Stow City School District as their District Leadership Coach, where he helps teachers, coaches and administrators become more effective leaders.

Every system(or team) desires 5 things: SCARF

Good places to start

Critical thinking in the stress of a game

If you have established your guiding principles, it greatly increases your ability to calmly think through and stay focused on what’s important

Overfunctioning=Underfunctioning

When one overfunctions, there is a reciprocal reaction of underfunctioning

The best balance for a coach is to be there to be a calm presence in a storm, but not overreact to negative situations that will occur in every game

A child-focused society

If a parent over-focuses on their children, the child is worse off

As a coach- do your coaching well, but think less about it.

Game theory – There is a fear our kid/team will get behind if someone else practices more or plays on more travel teams.

A 2 person relationship is inherently unstable. For parents – it is far easier for them to talk about their kids than it it is to talk about their own relationship.

Connecting with and impacting kids

John works with kids to help them start establishing who they are and identifying their self

The One that Got Away

In John’s senior year, he played against a tackle that went on to be an all-pro center. John got worked over pretty bad by this guy, but he learned resilience and knew to focus on process over outcome.

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Jack Perconte has dedicated his post-major league baseball career to helping youth and their parents through the complicated world of youth sports. Combining his playing, coaching and parenting experiences he continues to help create better sporting experiences for both athletes and their parents. He has authored multiple books, including his most recent, Creating a Season to Remember.

Thank you to our sponsors! – Lead ‘Em Up – Save 10% using discount code ‘wyccoaches’ at leademup.com

Listen Now:

Cringe Moments

Early on Jack was bothered by the ‘know-it-all’ kids, but over the years he has learned to stick with them and they can become some of your best supporters

Teaching skills

Start with talking with the kids about their individual strengths and weaknesses

Set up short-term and long-term plans with them

Utilize multiple stations with small groups to keep everyone

Achieving peak performance mentally

Confidence comes and goes, it’s the coaches job to keep stay optimistic. Good things happen in the players’ heads when you have confidence in them and let them know you believe in them.

Confidence comes from perfecting the fundamentals

Attitude

When Jack was playing in the Dodgers organization, the Dodgers came down to watch a couple players in the minor leagues. One player was on fire, and the other was struggling. A few weeks later they called up the player who was struggling. They said it was because they were so impressed with the attitude of the player while he was struggling.

Parents

It’s critical to have a meeting with the parents before the season and explain your philosophies on playing time, strategies, etc.

Continue that communication with updates to the parents throughout the season

Coaching your own kids

Each kid is different. Some embrace learning from their parent, some resist it.

The One that Got Away

Jack made the last out of the season in a one game playoff when with the Dodgers

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You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time.

Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”​

– Vince Lombardi

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I am not a ‘winning’ apologist. It’s in the name of my podcast.

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I spend a lot of energy talking about building strong children and developing awesome team cultures.

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​​​​​​​That is why winning is important. One of the fundamental cornerstones in building strong children is teaching them to not be satisfied with ‘good enough.’

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That’s what’s so powerful about competition. It is a measuring stick that provides tangible results on how we are progressing.

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The key is defining the end goal. John Wooden defines it like this:

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.

A win, in and of itself, should not define whether you were successful. If you let it, you will become complacent after a win. You shouldn’t. You should continue the striving ‘to become the best you are capable of becoming.’

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We discussed this at length in this week’s podcast. Strategies on how to lead your team to perform it’s best.

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Lynden Gwartney has studied winning coaches in sports and compared the results with military leaders who have been successful on the battlefield.

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Looking at 45 components of successful teams, he narrowed it down to his ‘Big 3.’

Find your opponents weakness and attack it

Stick with what’s working

Find your opponents strength and neutralize it

These are great in-game tactics for a coach to use to give their teams the best chance to perform at a high level and have success in the game. (And dare I say, give their teams the best chance to win?)

Lynden Gwartney is the founder of Mind Of A Champion Sports, and trains athletes and coaches in the principles of winning in sports. He is the author of How to Win at Sports, where through examples from Marine Corps history and analysis of the world’s top athletes and coaches – as well as thirty years of exprience as an athlete and coach – Lynden reveals the concepts that all champions use to gain an advantage over their opponents.

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Dr. Clayton Kuklick is a University of Denver Clinical Assistant Professor of Master of Arts in Sports Coaching and a PhD in Athletic Coaching Education. Clayton played college and pro baseball and has coached at all levels from youth through college.

Teaching Skills

Dynamic systems theory – Provide a few guidelines, then allow athletes to try different strategies and learn. Small-sided tactical games are a great way to do this.

Mental toughness

Routines can reduce stress – Having a pre-bat routine in baseball reduces stress. Practice it. In practices, before they perform a task, have them: Take a deep breath, one positive thought, then we go. A positive thought is best when process related: fast and loose vs. get a hit.

Culture

It starts with core values. Keep it tight – have only a couple core values. Then you have to define what behaviors demonstrate those core values.

Great analogies to reward behviors –

The Sugar Shaker – who made practice sweeter today?

The Live Sponge – who learned and applied something new today?

Connecting with and impacting kids

Clayton coached a kid who was struggling in school, he had a big presentation coming up – so they used some of the same mental skill approaches they use in athletics to apply to his presentation

The one that got away

Clayton played on a team in college that went to the playoffs, and they got pampered and ate a bunch of unhealthy food. They had not educated their players throughout the season about the importance of their diet.

Best borrowed/stolen idea

Clayton played with Justin Gordon – and Justin did a great job using analogies

Anthony Stone is a Physical Education teacher at Gregory Elementary School and Quarterbacks Coach at Boylan High School in Rockford, Ill. He is also the Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach for the 2017 Women’s Australian National Outback Team & writes blogs for “Hudl” & “Firstdown Playbook.”

In July 2016, he was named to the Hudl 100 list. He has presented at IAPHERD, the top physical education convention in Illinois, on how to get students moving with his Games Galore presentations. He has also presented at the Chicago Glazier Clinics on quarterbacks & special teams. He was the Defensive Coordinator for the 2010 U.S. Women’s National Tackle Football Team, winners of the IFAF Women’s World Championship in which Team USA did not allow a point in three games with an overall score of 201-0.

The rest of his coaching experience involves coaching in the CIFL and the IWFL Leagues as well as Beloit College (Linebackers/Special Teams Coordinator) and Rockford University (Quarterbacks/Wide Receivers). As well as coaching football at the youth, middle school and high school level.

He will be putting on fundamental youth football camps around the world in 2017, with his “Back to the Basics Football Camp” coming to a city near you.

Teaching Skills – Great games

One good strategy is to come up with games where kids don’t get ‘out’- have a danger zone and a safety zone – if they get tagged, they have to leave the danger zone and go to the safety zone and do some exercise before they return

Practice Planning

Use notecards/notebook – keep it with you in practices and games and note things you need to work on